Depending on your point of view, the BBC's Olympic schedule is either a bonfire of the licence fees without precedent, a vainglorious last hurrah for a public service broadcaster on its knees; or a laudable contribution to the great BBC tradition of uniting the nation in momentous times, through broadcasting excellence and technical innovation.

Whichever way you look at it, the 2,500 hours of broadcasting during the two-and-a-half weeks of the Games is not so much comprehensive as all-consuming. BBC1 and BBC3 will be swallowed whole by the Olympics, with EastEnders and the like shunted to BBC2 for the duration, and BBC3's so-called youth programmes, like Snog Marry Avoid? and Don't Tell the Bride, suspended altogether – something unlikely to prompt an avalanche of complaints.

What is more likely to cause protest is the price of it all. With many cherished BBC services the victims of cost-cutting – not least in sport, where the Grand National and Royal Ascot are among long-standing staples to be jettisoned – the Beeb's Olympic beanfeast does smack of raiding the life savings for one final blow-out before reality descends.

For the time being, though, sports fans can gorge. Complementing the blanket coverage on BBC1 and 3 will be 24 further dedicated Olympic TV channels, available on cable, satellite and online, and to fill those screens there will be cameras at all 32 Olympic venues, covering 26 sports and 39 disciplines.

On the radio, 5 Live and 5 Live Sports Extra will be joined by a sister station, 5 Live Olympic Extra, and should you be out of reach of TV, radio and computer, an Olympics app for mobile phones and tablets will ensure you don't miss some vital double sculls or clay pigeon action.

Roger Mosey, the BBC's director of London 2012, is clearly set on living up to his two pledges; that you will "never miss a moment" of the Games, and that 2012 will be technologically innovative, the first "fully digital" Olympics.

As a BBC lifer – he graduated from Radio Lincolnshire to edit the Today programme and control 5 Live, among other top jobs – Mosey is aware his aims are not without historical precedent.

The BBC pioneered Olympic broadcasting, covering the first post-war Games in 1948 with a brand new mobile studio at Wembley, whose sophistication Ian Orr-Ewing, head of outside broadcasts at the time – Mosey's 1948 equivalent effectively – trumpeted in a newsreel film previewing the Games.

And he was equally proud of the 1948 London Games' ubiquity on TV. In a piece in the Radio Times he boasted of "an average of three and a half hours a day of coverage" and wondered how anyone could possibly watch that much.

"From correspondence received," he wrote, "it is clear a large percentage of viewers will try to see all programmes televised. It is hoped this habit will not persist or viewers will be easily recognised on the streets of London by their pallid appearance!" Not for nothing did the BBC become known as Auntie.

Richard Dimbleby was the voice of the BBC then, commentating on the opening ceremony, a simple matter of the athletes marching into Wembley Stadium, lining up, listening to some speeches, and then marching out again. This year's more elaborate Danny Boyle production will be described by Huw Edwards, Hazel Irvine and Trevor Nelson, and if you are interested in who might follow them into the many BBC commentary boxes, the answer is: anyone you have ever heard presenting or commentating on sport on the BBC, and Reggie Yates.

Even the much-loved veteran Barry Davies, 74, who was trending on Twitter during Euro 2012 after some football fans called for his resurrection to replace the BBC's new breed, gets a gig, commentating on hockey.

The BBC's main presenter is Gary Lineker, hosting the prime-time programme from 7pm to 10.35 each evening, including live athletics and swimming finals. Lineker is known in the industry as a hard worker and claims to have been preparing for his marathon stint for a few months. It is to be hoped not too much of that time was spent working on his "jokes". During Euro 2012, when Lineker was generally felt to have been a hit as main presenter, he said of a Spanish victory: "The result was Navas [the Spanish scorer] in doubt" – not just the worst joke of the Euros but possibly the worst joke ever on British TV.

The rest of the Olympic day on BBC1 will be fronted by other familiar BBC faces such as Gabby Logan, Clare Balding and Sue Barker.

BBC News promises "impartial" coverage of issues around the Games in bulletins and on the News channel but, with the corporation's cheerleading and determination to own the event, one suspects the Beeb will be no place for Olympo-sceptics.

The only real rival for Olympics coverage is Eurosport, which has two of the fastest men of the 20th century, Maurice Greene and Pieter van den Hoogenband, lined up as pundits and promises more than 100 hours of 3D coverage on Sky's 3D channel and Virgin Media. But the BBC will undoubtedly be the destination of choice for most viewers.

It expects huge audiences for the big finals but, whereas the 1948 Olympics gave BBC TV a kickstart, the future for the Corporation after these massively expensive Games is much less certain.

How to catch the Games' blanket coverage

BBC

• Live coverage of every event at the Games, offering 2,500 hours of content, 1,000 more than at Beijing 2008

• BBC1, BBC1 HD, BBC2, BBC3 and BBC HD broadcasting live throughout the day

• 24 additional BBC live channels, available via the red button, website, iPhone, iPad, Android and on the Sky, Virgin and Freesat platforms

• 3D coverage available for the first time on BBC HD, featuring live broadcasts of the opening and closing ceremonies, the 100m final, and daily highlights

• Temporary digital radio station, 5 Live Olympic Extra, added to coverage on 5 Live and 5 Live Sports Extra

Eurosport

• 14 hours of daily live coverage on Eurosport and Eurosport HD

• Extensive 3D broadcasts for Sky+HD customers via Sky 3D, and Virgin Media customers via Eurosport 3D, with eight hours of live coverage, and four hours of highlights each day

• Subscribers to Eurosport Player can access live coverage online, or via iPhone, iPad, and Android

Freeview

• Additional temporary BBC stream on channel 304

•This article was amended on 23 July 2012 to add Freesat to the platforms carrying the 24 additional BBC live channels.